Second-year student Benjamin Allen ’08 has been nominated to serve as student regent for 2007-08. If approved, Allen will be the 33rd student and the ninth UC Berkeley student since the position was established in1975. Allen’s nomination will be considered at the full board’s July meeting.
Allen would then serve as the student regent-designate for the coming year and be able to participate in all deliberations; he would be able to vote in July 2007, the beginning of his one-year term.
Allen reported to The California Aggie, UC Davis’ student daily, that he made the decision to apply out of concern for the university’s future, especially in the areas of accessibility, affordability, diversity and funding. “I look forward to serving on the Board of Regents both as an advocate for students [and] also as a consensus builder representing the values and goals of the entire UC community.” His priorities include looking for creative funding and protecting outreach programs.
Allen, 28, earned his bachelors degree in history at Harvard University and a masters in Latin American Studies from Cambridge University. He has worked as communications director for Representative Jose Serrano, (D-N.Y.), a Latin American Program assistant with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and as an assistant editor for Business Mexico, a Mexico City-based trade and business monthly. While at Boalt, Allen has served on the Graduate Assembly’s executive board.
This summer, Allen will work as a judicial clerk at the United Nations court established in Tanzania to try the alleged perpetrators of the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
The 26-member Board of Regents is the governing body for the 10-campus UC system. Allen was chosen from a pool of 73 applicants from 10 UC campuses.